For these reasons, our author informs us, a sufficient force was disposed round Arafat, and the prodigious multitude went and returned without molestation or insult.[FN#18]
[p.400] After the pilgrimage Haji Mahomet repaired to Taif. On the road he remarked a phenomenon observable in Al-Hijazthe lightness of the nights there. Finati attributes it to the southern position of the place. But, observing a perceptible twilight there, I was forced to seek further cause. May not the absence of vegetation, and the heat-absorbing nature of the soil,granite, quartz, and basalt,account for the phenomenon[FN#19]? The natives as usual, observing it, have invested its origin with the garb of fable.
It is not my intention to accompany Mahomet to the shameful defeat of Taraba, where Tussun Pasha lost three quarters of his army, or to the glorious victory of Bissel, where Mohammed Ali on the 10th January, 1815, broke 24,000 Wahhabis commanded by Faysal bin Saud. His account of this interesting campaign is not full or accurate like Mengins; still, being the tale of an eye-witness, it attracts attention. Nothing can be more graphic than his picture of the old conqueror sitting with exulting countenance upon the carpet where he had vowed to await death or victory, and surrounded by heaps of enemies heads.[FN#20]
Still less would it be to the purpose to describe the latter details of Haji Mahomets career, his return to Cairo, his accompanying Mr. Bankes to upper Egypt and Syria, and his various trips to Aleppo, Kurdistan, the
[p.401] Said, the great Oasis, Nabathaea, Sennaar, and Dongola. We concede to him the praise claimed by his translator, that he was a traveller to no ordinary extent; but beyond this we cannot go. He was so ignorant that he had forgotten to write[FN#21]; his curiosity and his powers of observation keep pace with his knowledge[FN#22]; his moral character as it appears in print is of that description which knows no sense of shame: it is not candour but sheer insensibility which makes him relate circumstantially his repeated desertions, his betrayal of Fatimah, and his various plunderings.
[FN#1] He describes the Harim as containing the females of different countries, all of them young, and all more or less attractive, and the merriest creatures I ever saw. His narration proves that affection and fidelity were not wanting there. [FN#2] Mr. Bankes, Finatis employer and translator, here comments upon Ali Beys assertion, Even to travellers in Mahometan countries, I look upon the safety of their journey as almost impossible, unless they have previously submitted to the rite. Ali Bey is correct; the danger is doubled by non-compliance with the custom. Mr. Bankes apprehends that very few renegadoes do submit to it. In bigoted Moslem countries, it is considered a sine qua non. [FN#3] See Chap. xiii. of this work. [FN#4] Black cloth, according to Ali Bey; and I believe he is correct. So Mr. Bankes. If Ali Bey meant broad-cloth, both are in error, as the specimen in my possessiona mixture of silk and cottonproves. [FN#5] Ali Bey showed by his measurements that no two sides correspond exactly. To all appearance the sides are equal, though it is certain they are not; the height exceeds the length and the breadth. [FN#6] Ali Bey (A.D. 1807) computes 80,000 men, 2,000 women, and 1,000 children at Arafat. Burckhardt (A.D. 1814) calculated it at 70,000. I do not think that in all there were more than 50,000 souls assembled together in 1853. [FN#7] Rich pilgrims always secure lodgings; the poorer class cannot afford them; therefore, the great Caravans from Egypt, Damascus, Baghdad, and other places, pitch on certain spots outside the city. [FN#8] An incorrect expression; the stone is fixed in a massive gold or silver gilt circle to the S.E. angle, but it is not part of the building. [FN#9] Ali Bey is correct in stating that the running is on the return from Arafat, directly after sunset. [FN#10] This sentence abounds in blunders. Sale, Ali Bey, and Burckhardt, all give correct accounts of the little pillar of masonryit has nothing to do with the wellwhich denotes the place where Satan appeared to Abraham. The pilgrims do not throw one stone, but many. The pebbles are partly brought from Muzdalifah, partly from the valley of Muna, in which stands the pillar. [FN#11] Mr. Bankes confounds this column with the Devils Pillar at Muna. Finati alludes to the landmarks of the Arafat plain, now called Al-Alamayn (the two marks). The pilgrims must stand within these boundaries on a certain day (the 9th of Zul Hijjah), otherwise he has failed to observe a rital ordinance. [FN#12] He appears to confound the proper place with Arafat. The sacrifice is performed in the valley of Muna, after leaving the mountain. But Finati, we are told by his translator, wrote from memorya pernicious practice for a traveller. [FN#13] This custom is now obsolete, as regards the grand body of pilgrims. Anciently, a certificate from the Sharif was given to all who could afford money for a proof of having performed the pilgrimage, but no such practice at present exists. My friends have frequently asked me, what proof there is of a Moslems having become a Haji. None whatever; consequently impostors abound. Saadi, in the Gulistan, notices a case. But the ceremonies of the Hajj are so complicated and unintelligible by mere description, that a little cross-questioning applied to the false Haji would easily detect him. [FN#14] No wonder Mr. Bankes is somewhat puzzled by this passage. Certainly none but a pilgrim could guess that the author refers to the rites called Al-Umrah and Al-Sai, or the running between Mounts Safa and Marwah. The curious reader may compare the above with Burckhardts correct description of the ceremonies. As regards the shaving, Finati possibly was right in his day; in Ali Beys, as in my time, the head was only shaved once, and a few strokes of the razor sufficed for the purpose of religious tonsure. [FN#15] Jabal Nur, anciently Hira, is a dull grey as of granite; it derives its modern name from the spiritual light of religion. Circumstances prevented my ascending it, so I cannot comment upon Finatis custom of leaping. [FN#16] Open three days in the year, according to Ali Bey, the same in Burckhardts, and in my time. Besides these public occasions, private largesses can always turn the key. [FN#17] I heard from good authority, that the Kaabah is never opened without several pilgrims being crushed to death. Ali Bey (remarks Mr. Bankes) says nothing of the supposed conditions annexed. In my next volume [Part iii. (Meccah) of this work] I shall give them, as I received them from the lips of learned and respectable Moslems. They differ considerably from Finatis, and no wonder; his account is completely opposed to the strong good sense which pervades the customs of Al-Islam. As regards his sneer at the monastic orders in Italythat the conditions of entering are stricter and more binding than those of the Kaabah, yet that numbers are ready to profess in themit must not be imagined that Arab human nature differs very materially from Italian. Many unworthy feet pass the threshold of the Kaabah; but there are many Moslems, my friend, Omar Effendi, for instance, who have performed the pilgrimage a dozen times, and would never, from conscientious motives, enter the holy edifice. [FN#18] In 1807, according to Ali Bey, the Wahhabis took the same precaution, says Mr. Bankes. The fact is, some such precautions must always be taken. The pilgrims are forbidden to quarrel, to fight, or to destroy life, except under circumstances duly provided for. Moreover, as I shall explain in another part of this work, it was of old, and still is, the custom of the fiercer kind of Badawin to flock to Arafatwhere the victim is sure to be foundfor the purpose of revenging their blood-losses. As our authorities at Aden well know, there cannot be a congregation of different Arab tribes without a little murder. After fighting with the common foe, or if unable to fight with him, the wild men invariably turn their swords against their private enemies. [FN#19] So, on the wild and tree-clad heights of the Neilgherry hills, despite the brilliance of the stars, every traveller remarks the darkness of the atmosphere at night. [FN#20] Mohammed Ali gave six dollars for every Arab head, which fact accounts for the heaps that surrounded him. One would suppose that when acting against an ene[m]y, so quick and agile as the Arabs, such an order would be an unwise one. Experience, however, proves the contrary. [FN#21] Finatis long disuse of European writing, says Mr. Bankes, made him very slow with his pen. Fortunately, he found in London some person who took down the story in easy, unaffected, and not inelegant Italian. In 1828, Mr. Bankes translated it into English, securing accuracy by consulting the author, when necessary. [FN#22] His translator and editor is obliged to explain that he means Cufic, by characters that are not now in use, and the statue of Memnon by one of two enormous sitting figures in the plain, from which, according to an old story or superstition, a sound proceeds when the sun rises. When the crew of his Nile-boat form in circle upon the bank, and perform a sort of religious mummery, shaking their heads and shoulders violently, and uttering a hoarse sobbing or barking noise, till some of them would drop or fall into convulsions,a sight likely to excite the curiosity of most menhe takes his gun in pursuit of wild geese. He allowed Mr. Bankes mare to eat Oleander leaves, and thus to die of the commonest poison. Briefly, he seems to have been a man who, under favourable circumstances, learned as little as possible.
[p.402]APPENDIX VII.
NOTES ON MY JOURNEY.
BY A. SPRENGER.
IN the map to a former edition of the Pilgrimage, Captain Burtons route from Madina to Meccah is wrongly laid down, owing to a typographical error of the text, From Wady Laymun to Meccah S.E. 45°; (see vol. ii. p. 155, ante), whereas the road runs S.W. 45°, or, as Hamdany expresses himself in the commentary on the Qacyda Rod., Between west and south; and therefore the setting sun shines at the evening prayer (your face being turned towards Meccah) on your right temple. The account of the eastern route from Madina to Meccah by so experienced a traveller as Captain Burton is an important contribution to our geographical knowledge of Arabia. It leads over the lower terrace of Nejd, the country which Muslim writers consider as the home of the genuine Arabs and the scene of Arabic chivalry. As by this mistake the results of my friends pilgrimage, which, though pious as he unquestionably is, he did not undertake from purely religious motives, have been in a great measure marred, I called in 1871 his attention to it. At the same time I submitted to him a sketch of a map in which his own and Burckhardts routes are protracted, and a few notes culled from Arabic geographers, with the intention of showing how much light his investigations throw on early